R pre-sessional

Helping you to get started with R for your LSE modules!

Author
Affiliation

Andrew Moles

Learning Developer, Digital Skills Lab

Published

July 24, 2023

Introduction to the pre-sessional for R

This tutorial is for all students who will be taking the following modules:

  • MY360/361
  • MY451A
  • MY452A
  • MY464
  • MY470
  • MY472
  • MY452/552
  • MY455/555/MY472
  • MY457/557
  • MY474/574
  • MY461/561
  • MY459/559
  • DS105
  • DS202

For your pre-sessional programme for these modules, this is the first part. See the next steps chapter for information on what happens after completing this tutorial.

This tutorial covers:

  • How to install R and RStudio
  • How to open R scripts
  • How to write code in R scripts
  • How to use R Markdown files

Installing R and RStudio

Below are step by step instructions for getting R and RStudio installed in your personal laptop. RStudio is a popular tool for using R.

If you are wanting to install R and RStudio on a device whereby you do not have administrative privileges, contact tech.support@lse.ac.uk

Windows install

Install R

To install R, you need to download the installer from the R website. Once downloaded, follow the installation instructions.

Install RStudio

Finally, we install RStudio. To do so, we download it from the Posit website, and follow the installation instructions.

Once installed, open RStudio. If the installation of all the above software has worked you should see three panes, with one of them telling you the version of R you have installed.

Mac install

Install R

To install R on your Mac you need to know the type of processor your Mac uses. This is straightforward to find out:

  1. On the top navigation bar on your Mac, click on the apple icon
  2. From the drop down menu, select About This Mac
  3. In Overview you will find the information about your Mac. If you have an Intel Mac, you will see the processor row, which has information that includes Intel. If you have an M1 Mac, you will see chip and M1 in the Overview

If you have a M1 Mac you will need to download the R package that says something like: R-4.2.2-arm64.pkg. If you have a Intel Mac you will need to download the R package that says something like: R-4.2.2.pkg

To install R, you need to download the installer from the R website. Once downloaded, follow the installation instructions.

Install XQuartz

To run R on a Mac operating system, XQuartz is required. You can install it by following this link, downloading it and following the installation instructions.

Install RStudio

Finally, we install RStudio. To do so, we download it from the Posit website, and follow the installation instructions.

Once installed, open RStudio. If the installation of all the above software has worked you should see three panes, with one of them telling you the version of R you have installed.

Installing R and RStudio installation issues

If your installation for R and RStudio did not work, this is likely because your computer is running an older operating system. In these cases you will have to install an older version of the software. For help with this please contact digital.skills.lab@lse.ac.uk.

Quick note on R and RStudio

You might be asking yourself, why am I installing R and RStudio?

An abridged answer to this question is R is the language we will be using, and RStudio is the environment in which we will be using R.


First steps with R

Load RStudio

You should see a layout with 3 panels

There are two main ways of running R code: scripts and R Markdown. We will touch on both.

How to use R scripts

How to use R Markdown

Exercises

The best way to get comfortable with a software is to start using it! Below are a series of exercises which will help you get more comfortable writing and running R code.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Next steps

Add graphic here

Explain steps

Move to final remarks about extra support

Final remarks

This tutorial was written by the DSL in support for the Statistics and Methodology departments, and the Data Science Institute

You can find out more information on the courses and support the Digital Skills Lab offers via our webpage.